Phantom work : design iteration timing in new product development

As companies compete to gain market share, increase profits and affect growth they often turn to concurrent engineering in an effort to bring new products to the market more quickly. Despite many anecdotal success stories, implementation of concurrent engineering can often prove difficult. As the pressure to bring new products to market increases, companies often compress their design iteration cycle times in an effort to develop products more quickly. In many cases, design cycles may overlap creating situations where learning opportunities (e.g. through testing) are missed and/or ignored. More perversely, compressing design iteration cycles can cause the creation of "phantom errors" and unnecessary rework as concurrent design activities iterate at different speeds. In this research, I use a system dynamics approach to develop a stylized simulation model of the design-build-test iteration cycle to explore the effects of cycle timing on learning. Specifically, I look at the frequency and timing of integration (build) test events and their effect on new product delivery time, quality, and development cost. This research adds to the existing literature in new product development, concurrent engineering, and system dynamics. Ultimately, the results serve to inform new product development project managers of the implications of design iteration timing on project performance and assist in the scheduling of integration events.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• McCarthy, Daniel J. (Daniel Joseph)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Nelson Repenning.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/47833

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/47833